A 3-inch green anole lizard, that was found in a bundle of tatsoi greens last week by a kindergartner at Riverside Elementary School, sits in an enclosure Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016, in Princeton, N.J. (Mark Eastburn via AP)

A New Jersey elementary school science class has a new pet. It is a lizard that was found in a student's salad. The lizard had been refrigerated for days.

Riverside Elementary School science teacher Mark Eastburn shared the story with NJ.com. The 3-inch green anole lizard was found by a kindergartner. It was in a bundle of tatsoi greens.

The lizard had been cold and lifeless. That was after being confined in a refrigerator for days. But it has been warmed. Now it lives in a cage in Eastburn's class.

"It is a really fitting mascot for our science lab," he said.

The lizard has been named Green Fruit Loop. It came from Florida. Eastburn said green anole lizards live in the southeastern states. They live anywhere from Texas to North Carolina.

"It probably has some moderate adaptation to the cold. Which is why it made it through," Eastburn said.

The tatsoi had been bought from Whole Earth Center. It's a natural foods store in Princeton.

Mike Atkinson is the store's produce manager. He said the greens are cleaned as they are stocked. The lizard must have been tucked away in a leaf, he said.

"I've been in produce for 17 years and I've never heard of a lizard making it to the customer," Atkinson said.

He said he doesn't think the lizard would have made it in a conventional or non-organic box.

"It might normally surprise or freak out conventional shoppers. But the majority of organic shoppers realize that produce is grown on a farm. And there's lots of bugs and animals that live on a farm too," Atkinson said.